1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to the field of dispensing machines. More particularly, this invention pertains to computer-enhanced locked storage cabinets and to a subassembly for use therein for rapidly and accurately dispensing single doses of pharmaceutical items.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art has already been introduced to the practice of dispensing pharmaceutical items, such as preloaded syringes, ampules of special medicine, and other such items from a pharmacy to a specific location in a hospital or other care facility, and ultimately to the patient. While such a practice is needed to properly treat a patient, it is fraught with high labor costs, the likelihood of inaccuracy, and the potential for abuse.
In a typical situation, the treating physician's written medication order is sent to the central pharmacy. The pharmacy dispenses the ordered item, charges the patient for that item and notes a reduction in its inventory of remaining items for later re-ordering. The item is then physically transported to the central control area of the floor or ward where the patient is located; a copy of the medication order accompanies the item to be compared with the copy of the medication order left at the central control by the physician. The item is then taken by a nurse to the patient's room for treatment of the patient. A notation is then made in the nurse's log showing that the item was, indeed, dispensed and used on the patient.
The sheer number of persons involved in this procedure renders significance to the cost ultimately borne by the patient or health care insurer for that particular hospital visit. In addition, the amount of paperwork is a serious burden to those who must fill it out and to facilities in which to store the documents. Further, numerous individuals are involved with receiving and filing the paperwork, and dispensing the item. And, finally, there is the ever-present problem of the possibility that certain pharmaceutical items, such as drugs, and the like, will fall into the hands of persons whose proclivities are to convert these items to their own use or for sale to others. All of this manual handling of pharmaceutical items and their accompanying paperwork have given rise to the burgeoning cost of health care.
Significant inroads have been made with the use of computers coupled with locked storage devices. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,014,875 discloses a medication dispenser station, for controlled access storage of medications and other pharmaceuticals, comprising a housing with a plurality of normally locked drawers which have been preloaded with select pharmaceuticals items. A control unit on the housing is programmed to unlock the drawers one at a time to permit access to the contents thereof, with the access being contingent upon keyboard entry of a predetermined access code and other selected information, sufficient to generate an access record. In its preferred form, each drawer includes multiple compartments containing multiple pharmaceutical items in a presorted array. One or more of the drawers includes a multi-compartment carousel tray which rotates in response to appropriate data entry via the keyboard to align and lock a designated compartment for access through an access opening in an overlying cover plate, thereby restricting access to a single compartment of the rotatable tray.
The access code and selected information generates a patient record, adjusts the pharmacy's inventory, and debits the patient's billing records simultaneously and without the need of human intervention. Situating a dispenser station on each floor of the hospital or other care facility eliminates courier costs and reduces the time delay between medication ordering to actual use or treatment. Retaining the pharmaceutical items in locked storage reduces the likelihood of theft. And, requiring access coding of each nurse or other person who handles the pharmaceuticals establishes an accountability that further reduces the possibility of errors.
A problem has arisen in that the multiple compartments containing multiple pharmaceutical items in a presorted array do not provide the security desired to control certain items. For instance, multiple pre-loaded syringes of certain medications, such as genetic material, and certain drugs, such as pain killers, require even more control than is now provided. These items require individual control and heightened security. This is not possible when they are stocked in groups. Even if each item was individually stocked in existing dispensing stations, there is not enough compartments in a single carousel tray to store a significant amount of the items. What is needed is a drawer, interchangeable with one of the carousel trays in the medication dispenser station previously described, that can store and dispense a high plurality of pharmaceuticals such as pre-loaded syringes and the like so that the computerization and control benefits of the dispenser station are retained and the capacity of the station to inventory and dispense the items is greatly increased.